What is a Beautiful Thing?

It turns out that there must be a minimum content of tastefulness before we conclude that something is beautiful. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Despite our differences in preferences, at art fairs, fashion shows, design shows, etc, we often reach a common decision about what is most beautiful. And although philosophers have not definitively agreed on how beauty should be perceived, some of them, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus, have agreed that beauty was objectively seen. They have reasoned that beautiful things (perhaps beautiful people as well) are in fact beautiful regardless of what one thinks or feels about them.

Another research done 10 years ago has dispelled the notion that taking cue from love, ugliness may ultimately grow on us. This research has shown that no matter how long or how often we are subjected to viewing an ugly thing, we won’t perceive it as beautiful. In unavoidable blunt terms, this study has made it definitive that ugliness is never softened by familiarity!